Ecological and Biochemical Studies on Terminalia Arjuna Antheraea Mylitta Herbivory

Abstract

Plant-Insect herbivore interactions promote co-evolution of plant and insect species. Both plants and their insect herbivores have evolved a number of constitutive and induced defenses against one another, and the diversity in terms of number and kinds of defenses are responsible for the adaptive radiation in plant species and herbivorous insect species. Terminalia arjuna is the primary food plant species of Antheraea mylitta (tasar silkworm) -a wild/ semi-domesticated silk-yielding species. Understanding of the diversity in leaf quality of host plants across developmental, environmental and management gradients and in nutritional indices of larvae of insect herbivores reared on leaves sampled across the ecological gradients, and adaptive biochemical responses in both the plants and their insect herbivores is critical in the management of insect pests of crops and enhancement of silk production. Information on these aspects of T. arjuna and its tasar silkworm herbivore is scarce. The present work on quotEcological and Biochemical Studies on Terminalia arjuna - Antheraea mylitta herbivoryquot was undertaken with objectives: (i) to assess the variability in nutritionally important foliar traits of host plant across developmental, environmental and management gradients; (ii) to understand the nutritional ecology of tasar silkworm herbivore reared on foliage of host plants sampled across different gradients; and (iii) to characterize the protease inhibitors of host plant species and its herbivore and to explain their adaptive significance. newline